Mental-Emotional Balance &Trauma-Informed Care

In Chinese medicine, mental and emotional states are not considered as a separate category of symptoms - we consider them holistically along with other health information like sleep, respiration, and digestion to determine a personalized Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment strategy.

Specific concerns like anxiety, dissociation or depression indicate underlying imbalances in the body that can be addressed with acupuncture, herbal medicine, and/or craniosacral therapy. These methods are regularly used in conjunction with conventional treatments such as psychotherapy and pharmaceutical medications such as antidepressants.

In many situations, it’s helpful to authorize care coordination with your other providers. This is a courtesy service and is not required, but we often find that we are able to provide better care when we are on the same page about medications, nutrition and lifestyle factors, and the somatic symptoms of mental-emotional concerns.

Tracy and I are not done with my treatment, and I anticipate both tough sessions and continuing improvement...

The amazing news is that I have not dissociated in 3 months, and I used to on an almost weekly basis. I also have greatly reduced panic attacks, and when I feel one coming on, I am able to follow my new pathway, meditate, and return to the body-feelings I learn during our treatment in order to stop them.

— Alicia, Portland

Healing Trauma, Cultivating Resilience

Trauma is an imprint on our nervous system that’s sometimes left behind from life experiences.

We tend to think of traumatic events in terms of violence, abuse, and death, but there are many situations that can scar us. It can be hard to recognize that we might be suffering from symptoms of trauma if there was not a clearly catastrophic event. This is particularly true if we consider certain kinds of early experiences as being normal or commonplace and we may not be consciously distressed about them.

We now know that these very early experiences can affect the physical and functional development of our nervous system development in ways that makes us more anxious, fearful or shut down, and more susceptible to being strongly impacted by events later in life. This has bigger ramifications for our health because the “threat assessment” part of the nervous system can become dominant and diminishes the functioning of the immune system, digestion, sleep, learning and memory. If that’s part of our life experience, it’s important to address both the symptoms and the underlying contributing factors whether we develop chronic pain, panic attacks, obsessive behaviors, irritable bowel, or other symptoms.

By decreasing inflammation, supporting healthy parasympathetic activity, and harmonizing the flow of energy in the body, these therapies help our own healing mechanisms have a better chance to kick in, free up blocked energy, and allow us to experience greater vitality.

How Can I Help You?

Visit the FAQs page if you have any questions, or connect with me to find out how I can help. I offer all new clients a free 20-minute consultation.